Bossman may not have always been in the main event, or always tremendously over, but he was a great heel. I too have heard many stories about his charitable actions. God rest his soul and sympathies to the family.

When I read that this morning I was like "WHAT?!" I always dug Boss Man and was hoping he would return one more time and liven things up. His angles were just so hilariously offensive that you couldn't possibly hate the guy. Just when you thought he may have been redeemable, he'd do something even worse.

I didn't even know he was that cool of a guy outside of the ring. What a shame he's gone. R.I.P. Ray Traylor. You'll be missed.

Bossman was only 42? I really hate it when people my age die, though since I have never worked as a professional wrestler, I assume my personal odds have to be a little better than his. Poor guy. Like many other posters, I would never have put him next on that way-too-long list.

Observation in dubious taste: I imagine when they play the clip reel in memoriam, his WM 15 Hell in the Cell match with Undertaker will NOT be included...

With the deepest regrets and tears that are soakedI'm sorry to hear your dad finally croaked. He lived a full life on his own terms; soon he'll be buried and eaten by worms. But if I could have a son as stupid as you, I'd have wished for cancer so I would die too! So be brave and be strong; get your life on track-- 'cause the old bastard's dead and he ain't never coming back!

Man, that greeting card was great. In fact, looking back, that whole angle was quite entertaining. While it was going on, I remember thinking that it was terrible. However, in recent years, I've grown to appreciate it more and more for it's entertainment value. The giant intercom on his squad car, the Big Show casket surfing as Bossman drove out of the cemetary, the greeting card, and one of the true great lines in pro-wrestling history: "You hear that Big Show? Your a big bastard, and your momma' just said so!"

The more and more I reflect back on his career today, the more and more saddened I am that he is now gone.

From everything I had read about Ray Traylor, he seemed to be a good family man, active in his community and charity work (wasn't he the guy who started the WWE auctions? I think he was.)

I wasn't a HUGE Bossman fan, though I admit, I had one of his T-Shirts (it was a really cheesy one, with his logo across a jail cell door. I really did think he'd be Intercontinental champion one day, especially around 1991 when he was chasing Curt Hennig's belt. He was certainly over enough to warrant holding that title at the time. Prior to that, I thought his feuds with both Hulk Hogan and Ted DiBiase were pretty damn good.

I remember his screwed-up debut in WCW (compared to... oh, pretty much everyone else there) where Bobby Heenan quipped "Wow, he looks like a big boss, man!" so that even the dumbest of fans out there could say "Oh, THAT'S who he is!". The series of names he went through there -- The Boss, The Guardian Angel, Big Bubba; I'm sure I'm missing a few as well -- just never fit him because he was Big Boss Man. Period. The character fit him to a T.

His promos during his Corporation run were pretty good, too, in a morbid kind of way, especially the stuff with Al Snow and Big Show. I remember watching them and thinking "Now, THAT'S a heel for you."

Anyways, it is really sad to lose another wrestling star before his time. Rest in peace, and serve up some hard time in heaven, punk.

This is truly sad news. Ray Traylor was one of the most entertaining wrestlers. I remember he and Ronnie Garvin having a streetfight match. He wore than Kangol hat, shades and that suit. That was a memory for my childhood. His fued with the Mountie was hilarious and made for good TV. From what I hear/read he was a good man. My prayers go out to his family and friends. Rest in eternal splendor.

1)The often-mentioned Big Show angle;2)At the beginning of a RAW, he bumps into Terri Runnels, goes into a rage, and yells at her, "Say 'Excuse me', bitch!" This leads to her and her Pretty Mean Sisters having D-Lo defend her honour;3)On a totally different note, I recall BBM breaking down during the Owen Hart tribute show while reading to the camera the note about Owen's death.

Very sad to hear of his passing. Of course, as wrestling fans, we go through this every couple of months, it seems.

He also had possibly the greatest sound-byte promo in the entire cartoon era, back in the days BEFORE guys were given 20 minutes to try and make their point. In the good old days except for a select few, you had about 15 seconds to make yourself spotted and get your point accross.

You have the right to suffer, you have the right to feel pain. If you wish to have an attorney present, I'll hurt him too!

At the time, I remember laughing at that line for 5 minutes. But also, don't forget: this was a guy who had never worked a top program in his career to that point (closest would be the 1988 Bunkhouse Stampede) and was in the WWF for about 10 minutes before he was given the program with Hogan for 6-8 months. That's having faith in a guy you just hired.

Wow! Geez this breaks my heart. I've always loved the big guys that could work, and especially the fellow Georgia boys that could work. Ray was a great talent. A great promo and he made bad storylines great (if you don't believe it, just read that poem about Big Shows Dad!) He was one of the reasons I came into this great business. He will be missed.God bless you my friend...

(edited by mercer on 23.9.04 1144)In the immortal words of Bossman as The Gaurdian Angel "That referee wasn't even supposed to be in the riiiiinnnngggg!"LAter God blessMarvelous Matt Mercerwww.MattMercer.tk

Traylor had always been one of my favorites to use in WWF/E video games, and he was my number one guy in Smackdown 2 for the PSone. Fantastic moveset there. Oh yeh...and in WWF Superstars for the Arcade...his kneel pin? Kick...ASS!

I always thought his BOSS MAN SLAM was one of the best moves around, especially as a finisher.

This is totally depressing, dudes...I'm really sorry to hear he's gone. My the Lord bless the Traylor family in their time of sorrow.

The SOK has seen the following cinematic masterpieces so far this year:

"I don't think you can use straight and always pounding ass in the same sentence." (Dahak)

FUCK. This one came out of nowhere. World's lost an entertaining wrestler and a great man. Probably one of the few constants of when I started watching wrestling (just after Our Fearless Liter met the barbershop window courtesy of Shawn Michaels), and I'm not going to say he always kept me watching, but he was damn fun to hate as a heel.

DEAN's Nuggets of Wisdom:

"I don't want him to die. I just want him to NEED my PEE." (as seen here)

As others have mentioned, he was one of the last I saw going. I met the Bossman right in 93 at a car show in Canton, real nice and softspoken type of guy. I remember the woman at the booth telling me to smile and the Bossman said, "He's tough, he don't have to smile." I was super impressed cause he took the time out to talk to me, despite there being a huge line.

Tell you, by the time i'm 30, all my heros from my youth will be dead.

One of the main things I loved about the Bossman was that after a match, he would be huffing and puffing. Most others walked to the back with some sweat on their face, but Bossman looked like he had just been in the world's toughest fight in that ring.

Also, after his first face run in the WWF, I remember him dropping his ball and chain on Brother Love's chest. I could not believe what I was seeing. And I loved the way he would have his opponent draped over the rope and would run across the ring and jump on their back.

It's a sad commentary on the business that so damned many formerly good to great wrestlers have keeled over. I hope against hope this was natural causes. Like the others, I have fond memories of the Bossman. I remember his charity work, too.

I was thinking about how Bruno's record is unbreakable, and how Punk's reign compares to it. While doing this Ric Flair's name popped into my head. Punk's was 434 days. Ric's first run was 476. Flair had ten runs with the NWA title for 3,101 days.